What Am I?
by gioia99
Summary: "When she followed his head back the other way, he felt his blood turn to ice". Owen makes a sudden and horrifying discovery about the true nature of Maisie's creation. Unfortunately, so does she. Two-part short, featuring Dad!Owen, some family bonding and a whole lot of seriously messed up genetics. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**I thoroughly enjoyed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom when I first saw it, however there were a few points that didn't make sense, so I went back and watched it a second time, more analytically and two particular scenes stood out to me: the close up shot of Maisie's eyes, and the shot of her watching Owen's videos of Blue. It's deliberately out of focus, but look closely and you'll see that she tilts her head in time with Owen and Blue**

 **This got me seriously intrigued. I know there were some complaints about the foreshadowing not being followed through, but I think these two scenes are very important in setting up the third movie, and I am very interested to see what they do storywise.**

 **Anyways, this story was inspired by those two scenes - along with the fact that I really wanted to write something about Owen, Claire and Maisie all living together, because dang they're adorable!**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

It was such an innocent question.

"Owen?"

Owen Grady looked up from nailing the latest beam in his cabin at Maisie's hesitant, probing voice.

Instead of answering immediately, he took a moment just to look at her, evaluating her.

She'd recovered well from the incident at Lockwood's estate, or at least so he thought. She'd slotted in perfectly to the life they'd escaped to, living out of his RV by the lakeside – far away from snapping jaws and horrific wails and _they're alive, like me._

When he'd agreed to go with Claire on the trip back to Isla Nublar, he'd had a hunch that everything was inevitably going to go to shit, but he never could have imagined just how much. The first time three years previously had been bad enough, but now he was lucky if he was able to sleep through a night without being assaulted by the searing heat of lava, the T-Rex's mighty roar vibrating through his chest and worst of all: the haunting sound of the homing tone as he stood face to face with the embodiment of death itself.

Having Claire back in his life helped, but the two of them were barely scraping by on their own. If one didn't wake up screaming, the other did. It was for that reason that he was incredibly grateful the young girl in front of him had chosen to stay with them.

She centred them, gave them both something to focus on other than the nightmares. She had been incredibly quiet at first, barely saying a word, but as time passed and scars healed, she'd started coming out of her shell, and she was now a happy and boisterous, yet worldly centred young girl. Her bright smile and earthly giggles bought a comfort to both he and Claire, a promise of hope and recovery.

Faced with an entire world that she had been kept hidden from, Maisie had rebounded from the attack in the way only a child's resilience could. She had boundless energy, always intent on exploring every corner of her new home, finding every hiding place and examining every object.

She was insatiably curious and hyper alert. Her head would snap around at the slightest of sounds, her eyes darting back and forth rapidly. At first he'd thought it a side effect of what had happened at the mansion, but he very quickly realised that she wasn't exhibiting signs of fear, only curiosity, an innate need to know everything that was going on around her.

In a way, she reminded him of how Blue had been as a hatchling.

His heart warmed at those memories as he refocussed on the girl in front of him.

"What is it kiddo?"

"Are- are you and Claire a family?" she asked hesitantly.

Owen paused. He'd answered many of her questions, but of this particular topic he had no idea himself, much less how to explain it to a nine year old. He could tell from the tone of her voice that it had taken her a long time to gather enough courage to even ask.

Averting his eyes, he cocked his head in thought.

He could understand _why_ she would have asked. Her concept of a family would have been much different than his – and the idea of one would no doubt be something she would latch onto like a Raptor would its prey. Some way… _just some way_ that she could fit in. _Be normal…_

An answer on his lips, he looked back down, only for his reply to immediately stall out.

Maisie still sat in front of him, her reserved posture unchanged but for one thing: her head was tilted to the side – an _exact_ mimic of himself.

Owen froze.

He couldn't for the life of him make out why she would copy him so. She didn't look as if she even knew she was doing it.

It was at that moment though that the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and glinted in her brown eyes and he saw that they weren't actually brown.

They were _orange._

He felt his every muscle grow rigid. He'd never seen her eyes properly until now – only in the dark or in the shade, which was why he'd just assumed they were identical to those of the woman she was cloned from, in her grandfather's book. Now though, now he saw their true colour, and it horrified him.

They were the exact same colour as-

 _No! Don't even think about it… don't even go there Grady..._

He went there.

His traitorous mind was already connecting the dots between her eyes, her behaviour and her personality. Years of studying animals – one very toothy, blue striped reptile in particular – came to a truly awful conclusion.

 _Hyper-intelligence… curiosity… cognitive bonding…_

She wasn't just similar to Blue, she was _exactly_ like her.

 _Jesus Christ… they didn't…_

His mind screamed at him that it had to be a coincidence. The biggest goddamn coincidence in history. It was simply too preposterous to even think about. It wasn't right, it wasn't natural. It didn't even seem _possible._ If what he was thinking was true, it transcended every single boundary of what was naturally, ethically and morally acceptable.

As much as he wanted to throw up, he forced himself to remain calm, for her sake if nothing else. He had to be sure…

Without answering her question, he slowly moved titled his head to the other side.

When she unthinkingly copied him, he felt his blood turn to ice.


	2. Chapter 2

"Claire, we need to talk." Owen knocked hurriedly on their bedroom door.

 _Fucking Wu… that utter, utter, utter bastard!_

Owen was going to kill him. No, better yet, he was going to go to the nearest science fair, find a steel model of a DNA helix, beat the shit out of the geneticist with it, then strangle him with his own goddamn research!

 _Who_ in the _hell_ creates a Human clone with _Dinosaur_ DNA?

After excusing himself from Maisie as calmly as he could – citing he needed to speak to Claire about her question – he'd come here straight away, hoping his girlfriend would be able to provide some much needed rationality to his whirling thoughts.

He didn't even hear her response over the sound of his pounding heartbeat.

 _What if they came for her?_

 _What if word got out?_

 _What if they decided to-_

He jumped slightly when the door in front of him swung open, revealing familiar red hair and alabaster skin.

"Owen?" Claire asked, concerned about his sudden anxious behaviour.

Owen didn't give her a response, he simply walked straight into the room and closed the door quickly, yet silently behind him, before sitting down on the edge of their bed and dropping his head into his hands.

Now Claire was really worried. She'd never seen him act like this. Ever.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she sat down beside him, wrapping an arm around his broad shoulders in comfort.

Owen raised his head and looked at her, revealing anxious, panicked eyes.

"It's about Maisie." He croaked. His voice was barely audible.

"What about her?"

"I think- I think…"

He couldn't even get the words out. To voice them would mean it wasn't just another nightmare, like the ones from the Island, or from the mansion. They would mean it would be _real._

He didn't want it to be. Didn't want to condemn the precious little girl to that reality.

But he couldn't keep it to himself either.

Drawing strength from the concern in Claire's eyes and the weight of her arm over his back, he swallowed, and took a deep breath.

"I think she might be part Raptor."

To say Claire was surprised would be an understatement.

She snorted (which at any other time he would have teased her about incessantly) and laughed, believing him to be attempting another of his childish pranks. It was only when his horrified expression didn't change that she realised he was deadly serious.

He went on to explain everything he had just seen, from the colour of her eyes, to her curiosity, the way she had mimicked his head movements.

How she was exactly like-

 _No._ he realised suddenly.

Maisie wasn't exactly like Blue.

Blue was exactly like Maisie.

And somehow that thought was even more horrifying.

From the moment she was born Blue had been different. She had been so much calmer than the previous clutches, infinitely more empathetic, to the point where she would, incredibly, show concern for him when he feigned weakness, instead of launching herself at him like all the others – her sisters included – had done.

Owen could never figure out why, and the geneticists who had created her certainly weren't talking. Now, he may have just found the answers to both of those problems. _They'd only gone and fucking altered her DNA by adding Maisie's…_

"Owen. Stop." Claire said suddenly, pulling him from his dark thoughts.

She rose to her feet and moved in front of him, taking his hands in hers and looking him dead in the eye.

"Are you hearing what you're saying right now? What you're implying? Wu and his team could do incredible things, but this… It's simply not possible… I think you're just being paranoid-"

"No I'm not Claire!" he flared, jumping to his feet. "Do you remember the Indominus? How she picked up those ACU men with those opposable thumbs? If she didn't have human DNA in her then I will eat my motorcycle!"

Claire was silent.

"Think about it." He continued. "Why was the Indoraptor _so_ focussed on her? It had us trapped in that display for _dead!_ But it left us for Maisie in a heartbeat, Claire. That's not normal predatory behaviour, especially not for something as smart as it was."

"Owen-"

"Remember what Mills said, about how Lockwood's decision to clone his daughter drove he and Hammond apart? Claire, they split nearly three _decades_ ago! Maisie can't be any older than ten. Even if the Human genome was twice as complex as a Dinosaur's, how could it have taken _twenty years_ to create a viable clone?"

To this, Claire had no response. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She tried, desperately, to come up with some form of answer that didn't confirm what Owen suspected, but she was simply unable to.

She felt her stomach lurch.

"How?" she got out eventually, "How could this be possible? Eli couldn't have… He hadn't been working with Lockwood for that long-"

She clamped her hand over her mouth as tears began welling in her eyes. Just the thought of what the scientists might have done… playing with life – a _Human_ life – with such blatant disregard… it was simply disgusting.

Owen engulfed her in a hug, pulling her close and resting his head on her shoulder, as much for his own comfort as hers.

"I don't think it was just Mills, Claire." He muttered, "I think it goes deeper. Mills… Wu… Hoskins… they're all linked. This was Ingen's plan right from the start, to create a controllable weapon. They just preyed upon the weaknesses of an old man's broken, dying heart to create an abomination of science to get there…"

Suddenly, a soft gasp rang out, muffled by the door, followed in quick succession by a series of rapid, shallow whimpers.

Owen snapped his head up at the sound _. Oh God… What if-_

Moments later, the sound of a door slamming made them both jump, and small feet sprinting away confirmed their worst fears.

Owen and Claire exchanged horrified glances.

"I think she heard us…"

…

Maisie ran.

As fast as her small legs could carry her.

Pouring tears blurred her vision and her shoulders heaved as she sprinted away from the cabin and into the surrounding forest.

Owen's words rang over and over in her head.

 _Abomination…_

Of course she had been curious. How could she not have been? She'd latched onto Owen's strange behaviour the moment he'd deflected her question. Of course she'd wanted to find out why he was acting so weirdly. So with all the noise of a hunting Velociraptor, she'd followed him into the RV, crept silently up to their room and pressed her ear against the door.

And had heard their entire conversation.

And now… now she had to run. Had to get away.

 _Abomination…_

Trees flashed by on either side of her, branches scratched at her skin while overhead, the sky began to darken and the crashing of thunder signalled that a storm was fast approaching.

Eventually, a long, long time later, she was forced to come to a stop, completely out of breath and hopelessly lost. There wasn't so much as a trace of Owen's cabin anywhere.

Collapsing against a tree, Maisie dropped to the ground and brought her knees up to her chest.

What Mr Mills had told her – taunted her – back at the mansion, that she was nothing but a clone of someone her Grandfather used to love had been bad enough. It was horrible, awful to know that she was a product of science.

She didn't know who she was anymore.

But it was nothing compared to what she had just overheard.

Now she didn't even know _what_ she was.

 _Abomination…_

She was part _Dinosaur_ , just like the Indoraptor that had hunted her so mercilessly, and had continued to haunt her dreams long after it met its end.

Her already traumatised mind was suddenly attacked by visions, memories of the monster, of its dark scales glinting in the moonlight, the blood stained across its smiling mouth, its piercing, enraged roar. And finally, how it hunted them. _Oh how it hunted them…_ it was merciless, unrelenting, entirely focussed on taking life with violence of unimaginable proportions.

 _What if she was just like it?_

What if she started attacking people, ripping their limbs from their bodies, bathing herself in their blood, devouring the flesh from their bones?

What if she killed Owen and Claire?

The thought was too much to bear. Rationalisation had long since abandoned her, replaced with talons, teeth and blood.

 _Abomination!_

The tears streaming down her face were suddenly joined by water as the heavens opened above her, saturating her, as if dousing her in a physical manifestation of her overwhelming guilt and fear.

It was all too much for her young mind.

She clutched her head and screamed, before falling to her side on the ground and curling up into a quivering, weeping ball.

Alone, soaking wet and scared out of her mind, Maisie Lockwood broke down.

…

"Maisie!" Owen called desperately above the booming thunder.

After realising what had happened, he'd followed her outside with the intent of explaining everything to her, only to find the girl was nowhere in sight.

Cursing himself for his lack of foresight (Of course she'd have been curious!), he immediately started looking for her.

Claire had been unable to come. Still recovering from the wound inflicted on her by the Indoraptor, her leg had rendered her immobile for anything more than a short distance, and though she was worried sick about the disappearance of the young girl, Owen had eventually been able to convince her to stay back while he went off and searched for her.

Which led him to where he was now, scouring the forest frantically.

He felt horrible. Maisie was out here somewhere, alone, with a thunderstorm about to hit, with God-only-knew-what going through her mind.

All because of him.

As the first drops of rain began to fall, he swore, and resumed his efforts with increased vigour. He _had_ to find her, he owed her that much. _He owed her at least that much._

As the rain built in intensity, so too did his worry and anxiety.

"Maisie!" he shouted into the storm.

His heart sank when again he got no response. It wasn't fair. _It wasn't fair, dammit! After all they had been through, all_ she _had been through, she didn't deserve to be lost out here in a storm, after overhearing that she could be_ Part-Freaking-Dinosaur!

If he couldn't find her… Owen didn't even know what he would do.

It was then that he heard it.

Off to his right, over the lashing of the rain and the booming of thunder: A small, frightened sob.

He froze, straining his ears. _There it was again!_

Owen moved cautiously towards the source of the noise, and there she was.

Maisie was curled up in the fetal position, huddled in close to a fallen log. Her clothes were plastered to her skin and her teeth chattered violently in between the harsh, desperate sobs that wracked her tiny body.

She was openly weeping.

His heart broke in half at seeing her so distraught, and he instantly raced over to her, dropping to his knees and skidding to a stop in front of her.

"Maisie, it's me, it's Owen." He said quickly as he attempted to wrap her up in a tight hug, both in sheer relief and to get her out of the rain.

He was stunned when she fought back violently, twisting and thrashing in his grasp.

"No! Let me go!" she cried out in agony. "I won't kill you! I won't"

"Maisie, calm down!" he tried to restrain her, purely to keep her from hurting herself.

She pushed back against him as she shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut as if she were scared to even look at him. "No! Leave me!" she sobbed. "Leave me alone…"

"Maisie look at me." Owen said, gasping her upper arms and turning her so she was facing him. "Look at me!"

It seemed to take every bit of resolution she had to raise her head and open her eyes reluctantly.

He was looking dead into her eyes, his own irises alight with fierce determination, just as they had been when he'd burst into her bedroom, rifle in hand to save her from the Indoraptor.

"I won't leave you." He said firmly.

It sounded more like a promise than a statement.

She gave no response. The last of her strength seemed to just abandon her, and all she could do was close her eyes and slump against him, panting and quivering.

Thinking quickly, and not knowing what else to do, Owen jammed some fallen branches into the sodden ground and peeled off his raincoat, stretching it over them so they were at least out of the rain, before he turned his attention back to Maisie.

She had calmed down slightly – only slightly – and was no longer fighting against him. This time, she allowed him to wrap his arms around her and pull her against him, rubbing his hands slowly up and down her back.

He could only look down at her inconsolable form with abstract pity. He couldn't get over the look on her face when she'd first seen him. She'd looked _terrified,_ a look of total, utter fear that he'd only seen once before: When the Indoraptor had been hunting her…

And her words… _'I won't kill you'…_

What the hell was that all about?

"Maisie…" he said quietly, after some time. "We need to go back."

On hearing him, she fisted her hands tightly in his shirt and shook her head against his chest as her shoulders bucked again.

Owen sighed.

There was nothing he wanted more than to be able to take her pain away. He couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of emotional trauma she was going through. All he could do was cradle her close to his chest in an attempt to warm her up. Her skin was pale, her fingers icy cold against him. She must have been freezing…

Mercifully, the rain was beginning to die down, so he resigned himself to leaning back against the log and letting Maisie bury her head in his chest and cry her anguish out.

Eventually, when the rain had eased to a slight patter on the jacket above them and Maisie's sobs had quietened to light sniffs, he placed his fingers under her chin and gently tilted her head up so he could look at her.

"You okay?" he asked softly.

She looked at him for a moment, before her chin started trembling and she soundlessly shook her head.

"Is it true?" she asked suddenly. Her voice made him pause. She sounded so small and afraid, but there was a desperation in her voice too… a hopeless, overwhelming need for some sense of closure.

Owen bit his lip. "I don't know, Maisie." was all he could think to say. "I don't know." He hugged her again, and he put his hand on the back of her head, running his fingers through her sodden hair to try and comfort her.

"I never asked to be made…" she murmured blankly. "All this time, I was just an experiment…"

She forced her eyes closed as tears threatened to spill over once more.

"What am I?" she whispered brokenly. She sounded more haunted than anyone her age deserved to be.

"Hey…" Owen spoke up, his deep voice reverberating through his chest and into hers.

He pulled her back slightly from him, so he could lock his eyes with hers.

"Don't ever ask that, okay. Maybe you do have Raptor DNA, maybe you don't, but it doesn't matter, you understand?

All that matters is that you are _you_. You are Maisie Lockwood. You are here, you're alive and you are loved, Maisie. Claire and I love you, Iris loved you, and your grandfather loved you too. It doesn't matter who you are, or what you're made of. As long as you stay true to yourself, that's all any of us can ask of you, alright."

Maisie didn't understand all of what he was saying, but just hearing him speak and looking at his warm, kind eyes was enough to calm her frantic nerves and ease some of her fears.

"And hey," He grinned at her. " _Raptor DNA?_ That's pretty cool… No wonder you always outrun me."

She couldn't help the giggle that escaped her mouth at that, and he smiled in return.

On the horizon, the ugly rainclouds that had been hovering in the sky parted ever so slightly, bathing them in the light of the dropping sun. He pulled her in close and kissed the top of her head. She was certainly a long way from being okay – Hell, they all were – but the small smile on her face as it was lit up by a bright beam of sunlight brought with it the promise that sometime in the future, she could learn to laugh again.

The tension melted out of her shoulders and she let herself relax against him, exhausted. Owen held her close, determined to prevent her demons from ever attacking her again. "You're not special because you're different, Maisie. You're different because you're so special."

They settled down together to watch the setting sun. As it kissed the horizon, Maisie snuggled against him, nuzzling her head in under his chin and purring in satisfaction. He wasn't sure if he should be comforted, or concerned by the fact that Blue had done the exact same thing as a hatchling.

He decided on the former, and then he realised something else.

He leant down and whispered in her ear. "You know, I never did answer your question earlier."

She looked up at him questioningly.

"No, Claire and I aren't a family..." He told her with a tender smile.

"…Me, Claire and _you_ are."

 **The End**


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